MUMBAI: Time Antaeus Media Group, a Chinese digital cinema industry leader, has selected Christie as its partner for its digital cinema deployment in China.
This marks the country’s most extensive commercial effort to install 800 Christie CP2000 series DLP Cinema projectors in select cinemas by the end of 2010. These projectors will be installed together with 800 Time Antaeus Montage CDCS2000 D-Cinema Servers.
After conducting a series of extensive evaluations on the various solutions available, Time Antaeus opted for Christie’s CP2000 DLP Cinema projectors based on their image quality and reliability. With their brightness, contrast, true color reproduction and product integrity, the Christie CP2000 series projectors are popular among theater operators and have won numerous positive reviews from the industry.
The collaboration between Christie and Time Antaeus began at the 2008 Beijing Summer Games’ ceremonies with the purchase of 120 Christie CP2000-ZX models.
As part of the tailored digital cinema solution installed by CFG-Antaeus, the Montage CDCS2000 D-cinema server provided is a joint development between Time Antaeus and Doremi Cinema. It conforms to the DCI (Digital Cinema Initiatives) specifications for digital cinema servers. Capable of playing JPEG2000 digital movies with an excellent 2K resolution playback of up to 250Mbits/sec, the server promises an enhanced movie-going experience. Using AES128 encryption for keys, CDCS2000 supports watermarking through Thomas and NextGuard technologies. This FIPS140-2 Level 3-certified server is a milestone in China’s digital cinema industry, as it meets global standards and is making its mark on the global cinema scene.
"We selected Christie because they offer a range of proven entertainment solutions with remarkable image quality, reliability and stability. Most importantly, we foresee their excellent service and undisputed success in the series of massive deployments around the world. This will certainly help us contribute to the growth of the digital cinema market in China. As a leading player in the local cinema industry, we have contributed to the digital cinema infrastructure in terms of production and distribution. Now, we have completed the digital chain by embarking on the digital exhibition platform. By advocating digital cinema deployments on a massive scale, we hope to turn digital movies into mainstream popular culture that is readily available and affordable to the masses," said Time Antaeus Media Group chairman of the board Zhang Baoquan.
"China has always been an early adopter of digital cinema technologies. As early as 2001, the country started its nationwide film-to-digital transition. In addition to the state-level developments, commercial market forces are now coming together to further spur the growth of digital cinema in the country. Time Antaeus’ massive rollout is the largest single, commercial effort and places China at the forefront of the digital cinema evolution, surpassing many other countries in the world. With its market of affluent consumers, China demonstrates huge potential for the entertainment market, especially for the cinema industry. These favorable market forces will continue to propel the explosive growth of digital cinema in the country," added Christie Digital Systems USA president and COO Jack Kline.
"With eighty years of experience, Christie is one of the pioneers directly involved in the early developments of the cinema industry. With our extensive understanding of the cinema business and the success of massive deployments worldwide, we’re pleased to extend our experience and expertise to theater owners in China and bring the digital cinema experience to a brand new level. We’re honored that Time Antaeus chose Christie for its second phase of digital cinema deployment. The excellent synergy between Christie and Time Antaeus during the 2008 Beijing Summer Games started a memorable working relationship and most importantly, created an unforgettable visual experience witnessed by many around the world," says Christie, Asia Pacific vice president Lin-Yu.
